It is only recently that optical fibers have become common components in installations which previously included connections made by electrical wires only. Installers thus often need to fit units for interconnecting optical fibers side-by-side with units for interconnecting electrical wires, and this has led to a demand for connection equipment, and in particular optical junction blocks, suitable for being easily associated with electrical junction blocks, and in particular for being mounted on the same supports.
It has been common practice for a long time to provide electrical junction blocks with certain common characteristics to enable them to be mounted on various different standardized supports and to facilitate their use in connecting wires. For example, CGEE Alsthom's published French patent specification No. 2 502 445 describes a junction block comprising two cups which are closed against each other to form a closed block which is mountable on a rail and which includes at least one printed circuit card inside together with connection terminals which are accessible from the outside. Other similar blocks merely have connection terminals interconnected in pairs and are each made from two cups which are held together by snap fastening studs on one of the cups being received in corresponding recesses in the other.
Preferred implementations of the present invention thus provide a junction block for optical fibers analogous to the above-mentioned electrical junction blocks and suitable for easy and accurate interconnection of optical fibers.